Monthly Archives: August 2012

I used no white…the white bottle is a lie… Checkered Nail art. Jessie’s Girl in Fierce and Fab(neon purple) and China Glaze’s Kinetic Candy.

Simple tip…which I’ve done before. Dress Me Up by China Glaze with a tip of Catch Me In Your Net by OPI.

What did I do when I got home from Pennsic?? Painted my nails and ate the rest of my stash of Macarons!!! Light to dark blue fade.

China Glaze’s new Bohemian Collection in Deavently Daring…It looked more duo-chrome in the bottle, but it is still pretty, very. I picked up the little stars at Five Below.

This is mostly from the new Revlon Moon Candy collection, with the accent nail from China Glaze- Hook n Line from the Hunger Games collection. I really really dislike the base color that comes with the duo polish. This duo is called Cosmic. The base is a green-brown color, and it takes 3 coats to get it that opaque. It’s a color that I describe as “If farts had a color, this would be it.” The top layer is a limey-yellow flaky which I really love over anything but the green-farts color.

Pagan Pride 2012 nails…I wanted to do purple to represent Spirit…Purple is the Pride color, so hey. It seemed to work…I used a Profusion no name color for the dark purple, and the lavender is Lilacism by Essie. Top coat is from the Revlon Moon Candy collection in Cosmic.

Lastly…we have Deavently Daring by China glaze with tips of LA Splash cosmetic glitter. The name escapes me on this one, as the sticker on the bottom has come off the little pot. But it’s a black/grey silvery glitter, and I love it.

I wasn’t sure at first if I should do a Pennsic Haul video…I’m never sure about haul things, I don’t want people to think I’m bragging, or that I’m not as broke as I claim to be…but I asked the masses, and the answer was yes. That being said, here’s the companion Blog for the video.

So first off, let me say that I scrimped and saved for Pennsic since April. I crafted, vended, and sold old gold jewelry so I could go and have the best time ever and not worry about bills when I got home. And I seriously did. Also, let me also say, I’m a HUGE bargain shopper.

Alright…the NON dace things first:

I bought the most beautiful Moroccan Lantern from Traders if Tamerlane. Their space was breath-takingly beautiful during Midnight Madness. They vend from a yurt (round tent), and had the fabric pulled back to reveal the frame work, and hanging all around the frame were hundreds of lanterns, all lit in a rainbow of colors, sizes, and textured glass. The picture I took hardly does it justice, it was just so lovely. I had wanted a lamp to finish my living room make over, so I didn’t think twice about buying mine here. I wanted a piece of that magic with me always. Their lanterns started at 11 dollars and went up from there. The one I purchased was 22 with 5 sides and 5 shades of glass on black metal.http://www.tradersoftamerlane.com/

I got honey!! Can’t leave Pennsic with out a stop at my favorite honey providers the Bee Folks!! And to my surprise they still had small jars of Meadowfoam left over from last year!! I bought a few sticks to gift people, and purchased a jar for my Sailor-Man to go with his tea. Always amazing prices and products.http://www.beefolks.com

Made a stop in Bush Creek Wool Works for my Sailor…turns out he’s rather fond of Thai tea, and this place has some delicious teas. I also picked up a chai mix for him. Both well priced at 2.95 a baggie. While I was there I purchased a pair of henna baggies with little nozzles…think cake decorating supplies. I’m not skilled at rolling henna, so these work well for me…till they break. But hell, they’re a dollar each. http://www.etsy.com/shop/brushcreekwoolworks

Lastly, I got my traditional pair of Pennsic Socks. I buy a new pair every single year…this year’s colors were teal and grey. 7 bucks. http://www.thebasketman.com

On to the dance stuff!! Yay!!!!

My very first stop was Saturday on the way down from the parking lot… Marrakesh is known for it’s dance attire, and everyone scrambles to buy a top from Ocean every year. Usually when I arrive, they’re picked over…However this year, he didn’t open on time, and had only been open a day! SCORE! Still, I was unlucky enough that they had still be ransacked…but I did manage to find an awesome short sleeved blue wrap choli. 50 bucks was a little steep, but well worth it for all the options this Option Top offers! http://ashnerbyelizabeth.com/

My second stop was The Spotted Pony, to buy the last two pieces of red leather they had to sell and whip them into a skirt for the Iron Lance party that night. I love their leather, it’s well priced. They offer lots of beads and other things that were once alive. Worth checking out for tribal costumes and the like. http://www.spottedponytraders.com

After the initial insanity of my Saturday sprint through the vendors…the next thing I bought was a new pair of silk mary-janes…the asian style ones from Pillaged Village in a bight scarlet, a huge contrast to my blue ones from a couple years ago that I can’t seem to find. For those who don’t know, The Pillaged Village is sort of like the Wal-Mart of the SCA…if they don’t have it, no one does. http://www.pillagedvillage.com/

Next on my list was a new lace up vest. My current one, although still wearable has a rip on the seam, and since it’s a sheer fabric I can’t repair it. It took me some time to locate a shop that had a decent selection, I’m thinking these are going out of style at last, which makes me sad. I like them a lot. It took me until Tuesday to find one I liked. I found what I wanted at Designs by J…I also found a pair of 25yrd skirt-pants!! She made me an awesome deal, and took every dollar in my wallet at the time. (Because I’m smart enough not to travel with my entire cash-stash at once) http://www.woollycat.net Please note, her Pennsic shop and her online shop have little in common unfortunately. Vest was 40, pants were 80 originally. She broke me a deal of 103 for both. (It was 105, but I only had 103 in my wallet!!)

From Wanderlust I picked up a pair of round beaded patches for 15 that matched. MATCHED. I usually find some super unique Kuchi pieces from them, but I wasn’t feeling it this year to be honest. I also can’t find their online location to save my life…Apparently “Wanderlust” is a super popular company name.
Midnight Madness night, I stopped by Marrakesh again to check out the shirts…you never know…some could have resurfaced! Ineed I was right! The 10 dollar rack was full of goodness!! I bought a new skirt, and a long sleeved top that’s the most hideous print of flowers and brown-teal color you’d ever seen…but I can pull it off! lol I’m talented enough like that to make it work.
Justina and I were hauling out the next morning, but I managed to convince her to take one more trip through the vendors before we left..and i am OH SO GLAD I did!!! I’ve been looking for some well fitted tie-in-the-back cholis that are NOT VELVET for a very long time…and at last I found some at Sultry Treasures!!! Well priced too!! The main reason I haven’t made the choli-purchase yet was because every time I’d find a well-fitting-tie-in-the-back-not-velvet-choli it would be 40 dollars or more…Sultry Treasures offers them for 25!! AND They were still offering their Midnight Madness sale! So I got 2 for 40!! I ended up with a black no-sleeved and a burgundy short sleeved. So happy with it!!! http://www.sultrytreasures.com email about the cholis, they aren’t listed in her products, I think she said they may be new.

I wish I had pictures to share of the product on my nails…but it didn’t happen…you’ll see why.

So I was heading off to Pennsic war this year, and unlike last year I wasn’t able to afford to have the lovely and talented Gina Cella give my nails a mighty shellacking. I was able to afford the inexpensive store-solution to the shellack manicure, aka Gel-Polish.
I found boxes on sale at Marc’s, 2 for 9 dollars, with a 2 dollar off coupon. Quite the deal, so I decided to give it a whirl…I wanted color that would last the week with no chips, and make my nails stronger so I didn’t break them all in the Pennsic wilderness.

I followed all the directions on the box, washed my hands, removed extra oil and dirt with 100% acetone no less…and then I got to work while watching Labyrinth….ahh…David Bowie…and I still say that’s a potato in his pants…
ANYWHO…

With the Gel polishes, you lay down a coat of something called an activator that looks, smells, and acts like super glue, then quickly mix in the polish color with the glue. Let it dry, and repeat cleaning off the paintbrush ever 5 fingers. Easy enough…and away I go…

The application process was easy, no doubt. And quick too…but you have to be SOOO super careful not to get it on your skin or cuticle, and quite frankly, the brushes that come with the bottles don’t exactly lend to the ability for precise application. The brush for the activator looked cheap, was brittle, and looked as if a toddler had been painting their nails, the bristles were just everywhere.
It was a huge pain in the ass to go back and remove the glue from my fingers…I’m lucky I use 100% acetone and have cosmetic Q-tips sitting around…Plain polish remover wouldn’t have cut it.

The polish did dry quickly…that’s a true claim. And you don’t need a top coat, although I did want one. I wasn’t happy with the semi-matte pretty much blah finish. I put a top coat on to see what would happen, it peeled right off. Although I wasn’t impressed with the matte of the polish, I was impressed with the color. I used 12304 Quickstep, which is…surprise surprise a teal.

I woke up the next morning, showered and went about finishing the last few things I had to do to prepare for Pennsic, and got into the car, looked down…and saw a chip. What the hell? It hadn’t even been 8 entire hours. I also noticed on one of my nails a little bump…as I was driving, I was picking at the bump, hoping it was just on the surface when an entire chunk of the polish on that finger popped off. Not talking a tiny chip here, no like half the nail…HALF.

When this stuff chips, it’s not a small imperfection…it’s a HUGE MASSIVE COMPLETELY NOTICEABLE OMFG LOOK AT ME chunk! I can’t STAND chips in my polish….of course I freaked out and spent the next 2 hours while driving picking at it and popping the rest of the polish off that nail…I was smart enough to bring the gel-set with me, and I fixed it while at a diner waiting for lunch.

Needless to say, the rest of the week didn’t go so well for the Gel-Perfect polish. I started off Sunday repairing the chips that had happened while moving things into my tent, and the same with Monday. By Tuesday I was trying out a new trend, 2 nails with no polish, 3 with…and by Wednesday morning the polish had been chipped from every nail quite easily…yes…it was terrible for my nails…but I really couldn’t stand it anymore and had run out of the acetone I had with me.

It couldn’t survive a shower. A SHOWER. One. Shower.

I’ll never waste my money on this crap again…honestly, just visit your trusted salon, or better yet visit Gina at Mod. You’ll pay 3 times more yes, but the quality of the product and results will be worth it. There’s nothing I hate more than wasting money. Uch.

Product Fail!! Didn’t even last long enough for me to snap a picture!!!